I would like to preface this submission by thanking Tony Lombardi for the opportunity to voice my opinion on his site, and to give you some info on myself. My name is Steve Webster; I’m a 37-year-old husband and father of 3 beautiful children. I work as the service manager for a plumbing company on the eastern shore. I was born in Baltimore at Saint Agnes and moved to the shore when I was 8. I am passionate about the Ravens, and if you ask my wife she’ll tell you that I dedicate entirely too much of my free time to them. Other than that though, I’m no more qualified to talk about them than the man on the moon. I have no connections or sources with the team, and ask that you keep that in mind when reading my opinions. With that being said…
No one likes losing. My own mood on Sundays, Mondays, and sometimes Thursdays, during the fall is largely dependent on how the Ravens perform, so I get it. I understand the disappointment of a 5-11 season, especially one that started with such high expectations; but some of the stuff I’ve heard and read from Ravens Nation over the last couple of months has left me shaking my head. Cut the quarterback! Fire the coach! Ozzie has forgotten how to draft and needs to retire! Pees is the worst, and the entire coaching staff can’t develop personnel! Bisciotti is too involved with team operations! Bisciotti isn’t involved enough with team operations!
Now everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, and you can expect questions to be asked after a losing season. Some justified, others not. But I ask, where were all of these articles, blogs, comments, etc., before the season started? Because, unless you believe that the Ravens completely changed the way they do business this year, the system that resulted in a 5-11 season is the same one that resulted in yet another deep playoff run in 2014; the same system that has resulted in 10 playoff births, 4 AFC championship games, and 2 World Championship titles. I’d be willing to wager that no one can produce me a single article, written before this season, that didn’t praise the Ravens front office as being one of, if not the best in football.
In order to agree with many of these sentiments, you have to believe some things that I personally, just can’t. I don’t believe that Harbaugh, the coach that took us to the playoffs 6 out of 8 years and won us a Super Bowl, has suddenly forgotten how to coach. I don’t believe that Ozzie Newsome, the GM that has drafted multiple HOFers and countless Pro Bowlers, has suddenly forgotten how to draft, and I certainly don’t believe for a second that Newsome is allowing Harbaugh to dictate draft decisions, and that that’s the reason the talent level on the Ravens has dropped.
In order to subscribe to that theory, I’d have to believe that Harbaugh has trumped not only Ozzie in the draft room, but Eric DeCosta as well (why in the world would Biscotti be paying two guys as the GM?), and that the Ravens aren’t being truthful when they say that once the draft board is set that they don’t deviate from it (because if they don’t deviate from it, then the only decisions to make on draft day are whether or not to make a trade, and I think we can all agree that Harbaugh isn’t taking those phone calls).
Sure Harbaugh has influence during the process of setting that board, but does anyone really think that it would be better not to have the head coaches input during that process?
What I do believe is that the talent level on the Ravens isn’t what it used to be largely because that’s the way the league is setup. The league craves parity, and when you make the playoffs almost every year, your draft position reflects that. From 96-07 Ozzie was given a lot more to work with in the draft than he has been recently. During that time frame the Ravens drafted 14 players in the first round, eight of them with the 12th pick or higher.
Three of those years ‘96, ‘00, and ‘03, he had two first round selections. Only once, in ‘04, did he not have a first round pick. Since Harbaugh’s arrival in ‘08, 6 first round picks, none of them taken higher than 17th, and two years without a first round pick at all, 3 if you count Perriman not playing last year as not having a pick.
What I do believe is that the 2015 Ravens were an extremely unlucky group. Their 5-11 record really wasn’t a reflection of them not being as talented as the teams they were playing (they set the record for close losses in a season for crying out loud). It was a result of a lack of turnovers, backbreaking penalties and injuries, poor officiating, and a brutal schedule.
So chin up Ravens Nation! It’s time to leave 2015 behind and to start focusing on 2016. If recent history holds true it isn’t often we will get to watch our team draft this early. It’s time to leave all the theories, speculation, and opinions of what went wrong behind us. I have every confidence that after an offseason of getting healthy, a little bit of luck from the football gods, and a typical “Ozzie draft”, that all will be right again in Baltimore.
And I believe wholeheartedly that the Ravens have all the right people in place to make that happen.
If not, I’m sure everyone will be here to remind me.
Submitted by Steve Webster
